Previous Year Question

The most significant aspect of the Champaran Satyagraha was that it connected the discontent of local peasants with India’s wider National Movement. Through it, rural peasants became associated with organised national politics against colonial rule. Therefore, option (c) is correct.

Under the Tinkathia system, the peasants of Champaran were compelled by European indigo planters to cultivate indigo on 3/20 of their land. The peasants faced inadequate payments, illegal cesses and various forms of oppression by the planters.

Rajkumar Shukla, an indigo cultivator from Champaran, persuaded Gandhiji to visit Champaran and investigate the problems of the peasants. Gandhiji reached Champaran in April 1917. He was prosecuted for disobeying an official order to leave the district, but the government withdrew the case after receiving massive support from the peasants.

The government appointed a formal Champaran Inquiry Committee, of which Gandhiji was also made a member. On the basis of the committee’s recommendations, the Tinkathia system was abolished, and the Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918 provided the legal basis for ending the system of coercive indigo cultivation.

Lawyers and students assisted the movement, but it was not an all-India movement involving them and women; hence, (a) is incorrect. It was not principally a Dalit or Tribal movement; hence, (b) is incorrect. Its purpose was not to cause a drastic decrease in all plantation and commercial crops, but to end forced indigo cultivation and the oppression of the planters; hence, (d) is also incorrect.